Monday, January 30, 2017

The first complete cycle of all nine numbered symphonies by Anton Bruckner came to its end on Sunday with a matinée concert featuring the composer's last work: the Symphony No. 9 in D minor. The project was the vision of conductor Daniel Barenboim, who led the Staatskapelle Berlin (as he has for the last 25 years) in all nine concerts at Carnegie Hall over eleven days.

This week, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin are wrapping up their epic cycle of nine Bruckner symphonies at Carnegie Hall. Friday's concert featured the Symphony No. 7 paired with Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat Major. Saturday featured No. 8 all by itself: the longest work in the Bruckner catalogue and the most demanding of the listener's sense of faith: in both Bruckner himself and the ability to build enormous bridges of sound bulwarked by harmony and counterpoint.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is arguably the most popular composer to come out of Russia in the 19th century. His blend of traditional folk-like themes with Western classical structures remains appealing to the ear, and the unfettered Romantic sensitivity of his music makes him a box office draw. The New York Philharmonic chose him for the focus of this year's series of festival concerts, but in doing so may not have gotten what New Yorkers expect.

The Met plunges into a new production of Dvořák's Rusalka, a Czech fairy tale with gorgeous music and a dark but oh-so-Romantic ending. Kristine Opolais sings the title role, which has become one of her signature parts in recent years.

At the end of its first week, the ongoing Carnegie Hall Bruckner marathon has moved into familiar territory this week, leaving behind the obscure early symphonies for works which, while not programmed with great frequency nonetheless show up regularly in the repertory of large symphony orchestras. Here it was the turn of the Symphony No. 6 (nicknamed "The Philosopher"), paired with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, a genuine crowd-pleaser.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

The Bruckner-Orgel in St. Florian, Linz, Austria, where composer Anton Bruckner was chief organist.It is also his final resting place. Photo by Greg Kraftschik for Wikipedia.

What's going at Carnegie Hall this week is historic. Not only is this nine concert marathon of Bruckner's published symphonies (in order) the first of its kind at that historic institution, but this is the first so-called Bruckner cycle in the history of the United States. On Tuesday night. Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin reached the midway point of their odyssey with the Symphony No. 5.

Some composers take longer to find success than others. Consider if you will the case of one Joseph Anton Bruckner, whose remarkable odyssey from humble monastery organist to world-beating symphonist remains one of the most endearing and bizarre music stories from 19th century Austria. On Monday night, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin played the fourth concert in their nine-part voyage through Bruckner's symphonic output at Carnegie Hall, with a roof-raising performance of the Symphony No. 4.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in 1893, but earned immortality, remaining far and away the most popular Russian composer of the 19th century. Starting this Thursday, his life and legacy are the subject of a new festival at the New York Philharmonic, Beloved Friend: Tchaikovsky and his World. The festival continues for three weeks, bringing the warmth and passion of his music to the stage of David Geffen Hall and other venues. Tickets and information are available here.

The nine-concert Carnegie Hall marathon featuring conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin reached its first milestone on Saturday night. This concert, the third in the series and the last of the opening triptych featured Mr. Barenboim leading his forces in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24, paired with the Symphony No. 3 of Anton Bruckner. This symphony bears the nickname "Wagner." It was one of two works that Bruckner brought to Bayreuth on an 1873 visit, where he and Richard Wagner discussed music over many a pint of beer.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

When he was 14 years old, the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim made his Carnegie Hall debut on January 20, 1957, playing the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Symphony of the Air under the baton of the legendary Leopold Stokowski. Last night, Mr. Barenboim, now 74, celebrated the 60th anniversary of that occasion with the Staatskapelle Berlin, bringing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 to that hallowed stage.

Friday, January 20, 2017

One might argue that it is difficult to break new ground in classical music, but inventive conductors somehow find a way. On Thursday night, conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim opened the first complete cycle of Bruckner symphonies in the history of Carnegie Hall, with that composer's Symphony No. 1 paired with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27.

There's a reason some operas never go away. Take Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, which is on the verge of celebrating 201 in the standard repertory this year. This month, the Metropolitan Opera's revival boasts an extraordinary cast, with Peter Maffei in the title role, soprano Pretty Yende as Rosina and tenor Javier Camarena, singing his final run as Count Almaviva before moving on to other repertory. All three stars shone at Wednesday night's performance, occupying their roles seamlessly in the company's flimsy but entertaining production by director Bartlett Sher.

In Second Empire France, the libretto-writing team of Julies Barbier and Michael Carré were the go-to guys for adapting great literature for the operatic stage. They set Faust (for Charles Gounod) and Hamlet (for Ambroise Thomas) with questionable results. However, their cut-down Roméo et Juliette (with music by Gounod) remains one of their definite successes. At the Metropolitan Opera of the 21st century, Bartlett Sher serves much the same function. On Wednesday night, Peter Gelb's director of choice was once more at the helm of this new production of Romeo et Juliette, his seventh show at the Met.

The first question one should ask when staging or attending a performance of Die Zauberflöte is this: Is Mozart’s final opera a coded Masonic message, a serious opera, or a knockabout comedy meant for the audience of an 18th century music hall?

Yoshiki is the leader of X Japan, one of the biggest hard rock bands in the history of his native land. On Thursday and Friday last week, the drummer, pianist and composer brought his softer side to two concerts at Carnegie Hall/ And on Friday night, the aptly named Yoshiki Classical Special was filmed for international broadcast. The concert featured Yoshiki at the piano, backed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The flamboyant pianist struck an heroic figure on the stage, but was polite and even soft-spoken with his fans, who listened to three hours of vocal and instrumental works, most of them featuring his skills at the piano.

Verdi's tragedy of a hunchback laboring under a curse and the tyrannical rule of his philandering boss, presented here in the strange disguise of two entertainers working in a rug joint on the Las Vegas Strip. Here, the titular jester is an insult comic á la Don Rickles, and his boss is a lounge lizard singer in the mode of Frank Sinatra.

In 1982, the legendary Broadway director Hal Prince mounted Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at the New York City Opera. That show did much to salvage the reputation of the composer's most problematic stage work. Candide first came to life as a Broadway musical. It bombed, was rewritten (with a new libretto) and rebuilt an operetta with slight plot differences. The Prince solution was to present a sort of hybrid, a revised, two-act comedy that filtered Voltaire's cynicism through Bernstein's gift for a good tune supported by musical references to most of the major opera composers that had come before.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

The pianist Stephen Hough joined the Mew York Philharmonic this week.
Photo by Hiroyuki Ito courtesy Harrison Parrott

In his time at the helm of the New York Philharmonic, music director Alam Gilbert has left a legacy of innovation and a commitment to modernity. However, his performances of warhorses by both Beethoven and Brahms have brought middling or muddled results. On Wednesday night, Mr. Gilbert got another chance to test his mettle with this music, leading the former’s Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor") and the latter's Third Symphony at David Geffen Hall.

It started with beer and sausage. On arriving at the downtown Brooklyn space BRIC, I checked my coat and was directed to the blacked-out "surgeon's lounge" for tankards of Brooklyn Lager and the aforementioned wurst, served on hard rolls slathered with mustard by pretty, in character serving-girls. Then a funeral drum beat its merciless tattoo and the waitresses turned savage.

The Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier is a master of human misery, exploring the depths of men and women in a four decade career. His 1996 film Breaking the Waves is the inspiration for the opera of the same name by composer Missy Mazzoli. First mounted last fall at Opera Philadelphia, Waves is the centerpiece of the 2017 PROTOTYPE Festival, celebrating contemporary opera here in New York City. It is the second opera based on von Trier's "Golden Heart Trilogy", following Selma Jezková, which composer Poul Ruders based on Dancer in the Dark.

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle MacLeod, known to history as "Mata Hari", is an ideal subject for opera. And now, thanks to the Prototype Festival, she is. Friday night marked the second New York performance of Mata Hari, created by the team of composer Matt Marks and Paul Peers and kicking off this January celebration of modern operatic works.

It's a new year at the New York Philharmonic, and the orchestra has wasted no time giving the first big premiere of 2017. Thursday night's concert featured the world premiere of a Piano Concerto by Austrian composer H.K. Gruber, with frequent visitor Emanuel Ax at the piano and music director Alan Gilbert back in his familiar place on the podium.

On January 19, conductor Daniel Barenboim ends a four-year absence from Carnegie Hall with a first for that historic venue. He will lead the Berlin Staatskapelle in a cycle of nine numbered symphonies by Anton Bruckner and major piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

New York's celebration of avant-garde opera in the dead of winter returns for its fifth season with the eagerly awaited New York premiere of Breaking The Waves as the marquee event. There are six new works being performed, plus one being workshopped. In addition, the Festival offers pop-up concerts, music, dance, multimedia presentations and the odd swanky soirée.

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Critical Thinking in the Cheap Seats

Since 2007, Superconductor has grown from an occasional concert or CD review to a near-daily publication covering classical music, opera and the arts in and around NYC, with excursions to Boston, Philadelphia, and upstate NY. I am a freelance writer living and working in Brooklyn NY. And no, I'm not a conductor.